Maybe It's Magic

Chapter 7

The next morning, they were back at the flea market again, only this time it was in full swing and Jake was a new man. He congratulated himself on finally putting it all in perspective after a nearly sleepless night. Yesterday was a fluke. Too much heat and too little food and anyone might start believing in magic rocks. 

He might have spent most of the morning studying Pisces horoscopes, but that was only so he could choose to not believe them. They could say this day was "a very important day" and that he "had to make choices" all they wanted, but he knew that it was just a day.

Today, that rock would be nothing more than an embarrassing reminder of his stupidest moment (and that was counting the incident with the Jell-O shots and the keg stand), so he was glad it was gone. Yes, glad and relieved. He was also relieved Molly was over there dealing with Miss Crystal or whatever her name was (Prudence?) instead of him.

Molly was holding her phone in front of the lady unrelentingly while tapping on a wad of cash on the table with her other hand, but the old lady was shaking her head. Jake wondered if the outcome would be different with more money. He'd tried to fatten up Molly's stack of cash, but she insisted that she'd thrown the thing away and she'd be the one to pay but "not a dime over thirty dollars."

"I found plenty of crystals on Ebay and on Etsy," she'd said firmly. "They were all under thirty bucks and some were way bigger and shinier than that crappy pile of muddy glass!"

Then again, if that was how Molly was describing it to Prudence, then maybe that was why it wasn't going so well. Still, she pushed the money across the table, then stomped towards him.

"All good?" he asked, knowing it wasn't. Prudence was glowering in their direction.

"I can't believe the nerve of that woman! She was all 'Oh, you can't put a price on such power.' Well, I know what that means! I'm not being taken for a patsy. She's not getting one more red cent out of me!"

"Jeez!" He backed away. "You sound like your dad."

"Thanks for reminding me. He's the only reason I'm at this stupid thing. I kept thinking this bazaar only looked like crap yesterday because it wasn't set up, but look at this!" He followed her now as she meandered around tables, muttering to herself. "More like a garage sale," she said, turning back to him. "You can't bring whatever junk's lying around your house. Where is the quality? The homemade crafts? This is the day before Father's Day, for crying out loud!"

"What exactly are you looking for?" he asked.

"I'll know when I see it," Molly said. "I want something special."

He followed her, not sure what else to do. Being around her was confusing after yesterday and the fitful night that followed. He really had to stop thinking about it. Molly was too important to star in last night's disturbingly erotic mud wrestling dreams, so he really had to wipe them away. It wasn't happening, though. Even catching a glimpse of Juliet this morning hadn't wiped those visions out of his mind.

Juliet had waved at them across the cafeteria when they came in, but he felt strange going over there, like he would be accepting her flirting under false pretenses. But the girl was unstoppable. She'd actually ambushed Molly and dragged her over to her table before Molly could even get to the crystal lady, all hugs and linking arms. Juliet kept looking his way the whole time. Molly did, too, though she didn't look happy.

Then again, Juliet didn't look too thrilled with him, either, any time he caught her eye after. Whatever Molly had said to her, it must have annoyed Molly, too. Because she'd been in a perfectly fine – or at least not actively hostile – mood when they got there. As for Juliet being mad, he was just too tired and hot to even think of the hows or whys or what the hell to do about that. Today's crowded cafeteria made yesterday's temperature seem like a balmy spring day.